Holy cow! Helicopter airlifts bull to safety after it fell off a SLO County cliff
Forget a china shop — have you heard the one about the bull that fell off a cliff and had to be rescued by a helicopter?
After losing track of a bull from her herd on Sunday, Fallon Molnar of Molnar Cattle LLC near Cayucos said she went out to see what mischief he might have gotten into. Cattle sometimes get separated from the herd, she said, but are most often found hanging out in a small canyon or wandering around a neighbor’s property.
But not this one. He was nowhere to be seen Sunday night through most of Monday.
Then on Monday evening, she found the missing bovine — at the bottom of a 90-foot cliff in an area called China Cove, munching on grass and pacing around the rocks in the cove below.
“I’m like, ‘How did you get down there?’” Molnar said. “I was driving back and forth trying to figure out the way he got down there, and I couldn’t walk him back up.”
Night had already fallen by this time, so Molnar decided to return in the morning with some help.
Helicopter called to rescue stranded bull
On Tuesday, her brother and father rappelled down the cliffside, taking 5-gallon buckets of water and bales of hay to the stranded bull, who had likely been without food or water since Saturday night.
She also at that time discovered what appeared to have happened to the unlucky guy: recent rains had drenched the area, making it more slippery than usual.
“He ended up falling off a cliff,” Molnar said. “There’s a clear trail where you can see his body slid down.”
Now that he was fed and watered, Molnar could move on to a new dilemma: What does one do with a 1,500-pound animal trapped in a cove, with no clear way back up?
Call in Cal Fire’s large animal rescue team for help lifting the beached bovine to safety, that’s what.
With the help of a CHP helicopter, a Cal Fire emergency rescuer, a vet and Molnar’s father, they were able to tranquilize the bull on the beach and sling him to some ropes to be airlifted back to his corral.
As the bull ascended toward the heavens, the phrase “holy cow” took on a whole new meaning.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ “ Molnar said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. Like, I’ve seen people post stuff, you know, maybe someone airlifting someone out of the mountains or something like that, but I’ve never seen a bull hanging this high in the air. It was crazy.”
Molnar said there was initially some worry that the bull might be too heavy for the helicopter, which has a 1,600-pound carrying capacity, but luckily the crew was able to transport the animal safely back to the ranch, no worse the wear for his fall and subsequent flight.
Bull revived no worse for wear
When they arrived back at the corral, the vet reversed the tranquilizer and the bull “stood up instantly and he was ready to go right back out with all the cows,” she said.
“Everyone was like, it must have been great because he went to sleep on the beach, and woke up in the corral,” Molnar laughed.
Even better? The entire ordeal didn’t cost them anything; Cal Fire’s team responded and rescued the bull for free, something for which Molnar said she was eternally grateful.
“They spent their time helping us and they’re very good and had everything planned out,” she said. “They’re very experienced, so we really appreciate them coming to help us.”
In the meantime, the bull in question doesn’t seem to have been harmed or stressed by his adventure at all.
“We’re amazed that he’s all right,” Molnar said. “But those animals are very tough.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 7:59 PM.
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